The Welshman

THE IRISH CONVOCATIONS. I It would be disingenuous to disguise our regret that the Government should have thought it necessary to prohibit the meeting of the Convocations of the Irish Church. We admit that plausible reasons may be alleged for the prohibition, and that some little incon- venience might have arisen from the proceedings of the Convocations, if they had been allowed to meet. But if the inconvenience had been much greater than, in our judgment, it could possibly be, it might still have been better to tolerate it than to adopt a policy of repression, which is, or appears to be, at once arbitrary and weak. The legal and constitutional rights of the Convocations are not—and indeed cannot be denied. They arc only restrained from meeting by an exercise of the Royal" prerogative which in theory is not less applicable" to Parliaments than to Convocations. To apply it to parliament would be possible, however, only at the cost of a revolution it can be applied to the Convocations with no greater risk than that of arousing a. sense of injustice among a body of men whose feelings may safely be set at nought. The measures which are to change the political position of the Anglo-Irish Church cannot fail to be, under any circumstances, disagreeable to its clergy. There was no necessity to embitter that feeling by denying to them the exercise of a constitutional right on the eve of their fall. The denial has this further awkwardness, that it lays the Government open to the imputation of fearing the result of free discussion among those who do not approve its policy. To forbid the Irish clergy the exercise of their right to deliberate will be regarded as a proof of some consciousness on the part of those who forbid it that what they are about to do will hardly bear to be discussed. It must be allowed, on the other hand, that the clergy on both sides of the Channel have done much to persuade the Government that they are not to be trusted with the conduct of their own affairs. In this respect the Convocation of Canterbury, which may bo considered as the leading clerical assembly in England, has done no good service, we are convinced, to the cause of its Irish sisters. Both Houses went out of their way last summer to protest against a policy on which their opinion had never been asked, and on which they had no proper title to be heard. The Episcopal pro- test had an emphatic and spontaneous unanimity, not generally to be found in their lordships' method of dealing with strictly ecclesiastical subjects. In the Lower House some little attempt was made to moderate the political zeal of the majority, but with no more than a partial effect on the debate, and with the significant result to the counsellors of moderation, that they have since for the most part lost their seats, Some excuse must be made for the Government if they have interpreted the conduct of the clergy and of their re- presentatives as intended to signify that they decline negotiation and deliberation, in favour of the less wholesome employment of scolding those whom they cannot convince. The Irish Convocations, it is true, have done nothing to justify a similar interpretation of their conduct, for the very good reason that they have never met ac all. But the language of the leading clergy in Ireland has been quite as unfavourable to any hope of conciliation or compromise as that of their English brethren. The petition of the Bishops, which has now been refused, contains no intimation of a disposition to treat with their opponents. The few clergymen who have ventured to recommend in writing the abandonment of the No surrender" policy have been scouted almost as traitors to their church. It is plain enough that the restoration of Convocation was desired for the sole purpose of launching protests in a more solemn and authoritative form against the impending decision of the Imperial Parliament in the case of the Irish Establishment. We have already said that, in our opinion, the Government would have acted with greater fairness and dignity if it had permitted it to be made and we are quite sure that the political influence of it would have been too small to be worthy of considera- tion. But it was not the very best way of gaining a hearing, to proclaim aloud the intention to say only what would be disagreeable to those of whom the op- portunity to speak was asked. The very fact that the Irish Convocations have been so long silent is an obvious argumentum ad hominem against those who demand their restoration. Why have not the Bishops desired, and asked for, the power to deliberate on subjects connected with the general welfare and improvement of the Church, when the same powers were accorded to Churchmen in England ? Either they distrusted the sagacity and temper of their own clergy, or they were of opinion that there was no good purpose to be served by the Convocations, if they were allowed to meet. We hardly know which alterna- tive would be most fatal to the claim they have now made. If the clergy were not to be trusted for ordinary business, the Government might reply that a fortiori they would be unfit to be trusted now. If they had no ordinary business to do, it might naturally be answered that they were not wanted for the extraordi- nary business of opposing a political settlement to which their consent was in no way necessary. The true justification of the Ministerial refusal, bow. ever,—if justification there can be,-must be looked for in their future policy. If they are ready to promote, to the utmost of their power, a liberal scheme of self-gov- ernment for the Anglo-Irish Church on voluntary principles, they will be excused for having declined meanwhile to allow the revival of an organisation which carried with it the ostentatious parade of ancient political ascendancy. Provincial Synods are assemblies peculiar to no political condition they are the inalien. able right of every Christian Church. But Convoca- tions derive their especial character from a political status of the clergy which has in great measure passed away, and which in Ireland is to be entirely abolished The statesmen who are pledged to abolish it are pledged also to recognise free institutions and powers of internal development in the Church they despoil. If they fulfil their promise loyally, we shall have not a word to say against their refusal to revive obsolete Convocations. If they go back from their word, they must expect to have a sterner judgment passed on their answer to the petition of the Irish Bishops than it would be fair or reasonable under present circumstances to declare.— (J.wlrdian-

v. vyvvr. THE WIND. Astronomers have sften pointed out how different physically life must be, if there be life at all, on worlds like our moon, which do not possess any atmosphere. It is not only that there would be no lungs and no breath, and, therefore, totally different arrangements for nourishing the body, but it is difficult to conceive even of diffused fluids in a world where there is no at- mospheric pressure to prevent such diffused fluids from passing immediately into vapour. Put a vessel of water under the receiver of an air-pump, and as the air is exhausted, the water rises at once in a cloud of vapour. There could certainly be no clouds in a world without an atmosphere, no refracted and few reflected lights; no flying shadows, few natural effects such as our earthly poets most love, no glories of sunset and of dawn, assuredly no Claudes if there were artists of any sort; no rivers, no ocean, no wind, no vegetable life of the kind that needs air and moisture, clearly no leafy springs." Again, there could be no language like ours, and still less music,—we do not mean merely wind- instruments,—for all articulate speech depends upon the air, both as a partial cause, and as the conducting medium, of sound and all hearing depends upon the vibrations of the waves of sound, which the air transmits, on the membrane of the year. It would be possible, indeed, to conceive of a party in such a world communi- eating with each other by lying on the ground with the ear in close contiguity to the earth, and communicating by vibrations struck on, and transmitted through, the solid substance of the earth itself but that is a process which bears extremely little analogy to that of human language or music. In a word, conceive any world of life without an atmosphere, and you conceive one whose whole literature would be scarcely intelligible to us, a literature into which half the conceptions of our poets would be untranslatable, which would know nothing of wings and flight, nothing of birds, or trees, or flowers, nothing of winds or waves-except, perhaps, the solid waves of earthquake, -nothing of ships, nothing of flute, or harp, or song, or minstrelsy, nothmg of clouds, and rain, and tempest:-notin of the breath of fe' and finally, nothing of aspiration, or inspiration or the Holy « Spirit,at least, the same realities, if they were apprehended, would necessarily find some other metaphorical origin. It is curious enough to think that the invisible envelope of our planet should enter so deeply into the very essence of our intellectual, moral, and spiritual life, that it is very much easier for us to conceive of future intercourse with the creatures of the most distant world containing an atmosphere, than with the creatures of the nearest by far in the whole universe because it has none. The wind, naturally enough, as the most active and marked of atmospheric agencies, and the most obvious to the old, unscientific world, which knew nothing of the constitution of the atmosphere, or of its weight, or of its limitation to a given height above the surface of the earth, has impressed itself more deeply upon the imagination than any other power due to the atmo- sphere. As an unseen and yet most appalling power, it has obtained itself a directly religious significance. The American-Indian mythologies all attribute to the winds the ultimate creative force; even our Lord takes the wind which bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth" as the natural symbol of the power of the Spirit ;and the descent of the Spirit, on the first day of corporate Christian life, is said to have been accompanied by a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind," -whence, naturally enough, the whole range of theological controversies on in- spiration." Yet, on the whole, the wind cannot be said to have had a solely spiritualizing effect on either the literatures or national characters of the people most exposed to it. The Hebrews were no sailors, and had an evident horror of great winds. It was God who made the storm a calm," and brought the affrighted Hobrew passengers on Phoenician ships to the haven where they would be;" and though the stormy wind" fulfilled God's word as a messenger, it was never thought of as being his word. Elijah was taught that God was not in the tempest," and was in the still small voice." Isaiah spoke of his promised deliverer as a "hiding- place from the wind." Christ's greatest sign of power over nature is, that even the winds and the seas obey Him." There has always been a disposition to attri- bute caprice and fickleness to the wind from our com- plete ignorance of its laws,—a caprice and fickleness which God overrules, but which does not so much reveal Him as add to the terrors which require a reve- lation of Him. The great sea-borne nations have usually regarded the wind in a very mixed light, as an object both of friendship and hostility, and considered their work quite as much in the light of a struggle with the winds as in that of a grateful use of them. Neither has the character of the Northmen and their descendants been so much moulded by the mystery and invisibility of the wind, as it has by the resistance and courage and enterprise it has provoked. Something of deference for its invisible mystic spirit-like power, no doubt, there is in all the great sailor-nations but there is more of hardiness and readiness for risk and pain and danger. It has done more to train the spirit which boldly encounters it as a practical adversary, than the spirit which bends awestruck before its shapeless and invisible might. We suspect that the mystic influence of the wind has been exerted far more through the sounds it causes, than through the forces it exerts,—in other words, much more through the intellectual im- pressions it produces in those who have leisure to attend to it, than through those who are engaged in using or fighting it, or both using and fighting it at once. Wordsworth has well described the effect of constant encounters with the wind in Peter Bell: There was a hardness in his eneeR, There was a hardness in his eye, As though the man has fixed his face In many a solitary place, Against the wind and open sky." < TjgrdnW is, in general, the effect which blustering I winds produce on those who habitually encounter them, but it is not hardness' which represents the influence of the wind on the imaginative literature of nations. In some sense, it may be truly said that the wind has a greater imaginative influence on those who dwell on land and in towns than on those who are practically concerned with it every moment of their lives. The voice of the wind, like the voice of the sea, is heard much more impressively by those who live on land than by sailors It is those who live by "a melancholy ocean," as Mr Disraeli says, not those who live on it, who enter most into the sad music which it makes. It is The towering headlands crowned with mist, Their feet among the billows," which know" the ocean for a mighty harmonist," for it is necessarily where winds and seas meet with most resistance that they speak most plainly. The subbing of the wind in the pines, its shriek round the old gables of country houses, its minute gune; against the windows of warm rooms, these enter far more deeply into thc imagination of nations than the tempests which threaten shipwreck at sea. The latter is a practical danger, like the collision of railway trains, or the striking down of a tree or house by lightning, terrible to encounter or to recollect, but not of the sort to affect the imagination of the mass of men in the ordinary intervals of life. Action of any kind is a sort of antidote to imaginative influences. But the sound of the wind has, we venture to say, affected the contemplative side of men, almost as much as its physical force has affected his practical life by driving away stagnant vapours and bearing ships over the sea. That an envelope of nitrogen, oxy- gen, and a little carbonic acid gas should have this strange power over men, that when introduced into a particular cavity of the body, where it does nothing towards our physical well-being, it insinuates a thou- san d dreamy thoughts of the past and future, of possi- bilities that are possibilities no more, of yearning to rise above the dreary level of monotonous habit, of remorse, of hope, of infinite desire, is as strange as anything we can put our finger on in human life. Surely, as long as there are wind and pine trees, or even wind without pine trees,-liotliing but chiiuneys,-for it to enter, there will be no need of a protest against materialism r What external observer of our planet could think that its gasseous envelope was the spring not orly of almost half its commerce, but of almost half its art and poetry as well? Yet you cannot only trace the influence of the atmosphere on art, but of the very sound of the sea and wind on the poet's rhythms. If the recurring hexameter is a partial imitation of a slowly washing wave, the ode would seem to be an attempt to recover the half-regular irregularity of the wind's cadences. This is, we suspect, why the ode is so often resorted to by poets in any attempt to touch the chord of infinite desires, as by Wordsworth in the ode on the Intima- tions of Immortality' and I The Power of Sound' (to which last it is evidently specially appropriate), or Gray when he is trying to body forth that half-sob of memory, with which men are apt to look back on the defined and vivid joys and sorrows of childhood, in his ode to Eton College or Lowell when he is attempting to connect the vague ideals of a young and buoyant people with the fiery trials of civil war, in the fine Commemoration Ode. We have heard the moaning of the wind in the chimneys of old, and not unfrequently new, houses spoken of as sounding like the voice of "a thousand years ago"; and something, no doubt, there really is in the sound peculiarly calculated to express the sense of loss, and of oblivion, and of desolation, without any particle of immediate power, though the cause of that sound is one of the most potent of forces, in full action at the very moment. Nothing is more curious than the effect produced upon the mmd by the wash of the waves and the blowing of the wind in hollow places. It cannot be association which gives both sounds their air of mystic dreaminess, of vain lamen- tation, or of melancholy desire. Both sea and wind are potent enough and practical enough to make the men who specially devote themselves to using and breasting their power hard, keen, darmg, rugged. Yet the sound of the sea on the shore and the wind roaring through the house suggests anything but daring enterprise. If it suggests danger and shipwreck,—that is by associa- tion, and because we know that shipwrecks come of waves and winds directly it does not suggest danger or struggle, but rather Old unhappy far-off things, And trials long ago," —and this can only be because there are certain sounds adapted of themselves to recall certain moods of thought, and which have not gained their power to do so by association. This is true of all music. But the special expower of a high moaning wind seems to be to blend an immense variety of subdued notes,—notes melancholy in themselves,into a volume of sound so great as to seem like the voice of a great past-away world complaining of its fate or its oblivion. If it is strange enough-as it is-that solid food growing out of the earth should supply human organizations with nervous power to perceive and feel, it is at least as strange that a few gases ranged round the earth, the more immediate object of which seems to be to oxidize our food in the lungs, and to provide currents which ventilate our planet's surface, should in addition have the extraordinary power of supplying us with a medium for speech, a natural music, and an inarticulate lan- guage of emotion.—Spectator.

THE SUPPRESSION OF CRIME. I As the new Session of Parliament will probably not pass without some legislation on the subject of Pro- fessional Crime, it becomes of extreme importance that the public should comprehend the question in its full scope, and understaud exactly both what is to be done and why wo are proposing to do it. We revert to the subject with the more anxiety, because we have good reason for thinking that many misconceptions, as well as prejudices, still surround it; indeed, when so clear- sighted a man as Mr Mill views the impending proposals with misgiving, it may readily be imagined that others are not less suspicious. To divest the case, therefore, of all ambiguity we place it once more in all its princi- pal bearings before the public. The proposition itself will stand without proof. It, is simply this-that Crime is at present pursued by a numerous class of persons as a regular profession, apart from all casual temptation or impulse. Offences there will always be, but in the case before us the offenders are habitual malefactors, confirmed in the pratice of Crime not merely by use but actually to a great extent, by choice. They have engaged in the pursuit of Crime, and this pursuit they will never quit so long as they are left at liberty to follow it. The profession is main- tained by a regular succession of practitioners, like any honest trade it has its seminaries, its markets and places of resort. About these facts there is no kind of question nor will anybody be likely to doubt the state- ment that to criminals of this class Crime, as now daily presented to us, is almost exclusi'ely due. It will also be accepted as a self-evident proposition that it is our interest to suppress and extinguish this profession, if we possibly can. Having, then, cleared the ground thus far, let us proceed in order to the more debatable points of the question. In the first place, who are they with whom it is pro- posed to deal ? In other words, how is a professional criminal to be described or defined for the purposes in view P A test is not far to seek. It has been ascertained by statistical calculation that five out of every ten criminals convicted for a second time are brought up for conviction a third time. From this we can deduce something like a law. It is at least as probable as not that every person who has been mdre than once con- victed of Crime is engaged in the pursuit of Crime as a profession. To that extent there is a fair presumption against him, and on such presumption it is proposed to proceed. We hardly suppose that anybody would at- tempt to rebut this presumption, or to deny that a twice convicted malefactor was actually a person to be sus- pected. On this point, therefore, we will only add that the evidence required to support the presumption will always be forthcoming, and in an unimpeachable form. If a man has been twice convicted, the covictions will be upon record, and the records can be produced. We arrive, therefore, at this point—that a professional criminal can be defined with precision as well as fair- ness, and identified beyond dispute. The next question is how such criminals are to be dualt with in order to des- troy the profession, and here we approach the contested points of the question. As it has been shown that the persons described are, according to actual expeiience, as likely to be guilty as innocent—that is, as likely to be living a life of Crime as to be purtuing any honest calling-it is proposed to put them on their defence, and leave them with the burden of proving that innocence which in other cases would be presumed. Any twice convicted malefactor would be rendered liable to be sum- moned before a magistrate and interrogated on his means of subsistence. In default of satisfactory ex- planations he might be committed to custody, and dealt with, for the protection of scociety. as the law might enjoin. That, in brief, is the line of action pro- posed. The objections to it proceed partly on principle, but we shall not be wrong in concluding that the chief opposition has been created by the machinery suggested for carrying out the scheme. That a principle a time-honoured principle of English law would be violated by the proposed measure is not to be deniod. Instead of presuming every man innocent till he has been proved to be guilty, we should be setting apart a certain class of men to be presumed guilty till they bad proved themselves innocent. But would there not be a good reason for such a distinction, and would not the forfeiture of the privilege have been fairly incurred ? Taking the class in question as a class, it is, as we have said, a simple matter of fact that they are less likely to be innocent than guilty. The presumption on which we should thus act is a pre- sumption actually established, nor could any wrong be done to a man by suspecting him to be a thief when he had been twice convicted of theft. But this law, if law it is to be, must have some machinery for putting it in action, and that machinery can only be found in the Police. A policeman, therefore, may summon the suspected man to "ive the required account of himself, and this is the proposal which has created the greatest repugnance to the scheme. It has been urged that the Police are prepossessed against doubtful characters, and always disposed to j detect suspicious features in ordinary acts, x hey may [ he spiteful, too; and if they do harbour malice against a man, they might under the proposed system find easy opportunities of gratifyiug it. It might be a most -erious hardship to a man, though t.wice previously convicted, to be brought up in opeii court for inter- rogation as to bis means of living. Possibly, it is urged, he might find considerable difficulty in showing how he subsisted, though hs might be subsisting honestly enough, and in any case his previous troubles, which it might concern him greatly to conceal, wouM be blazoned forth before the world, ai .I perhaps cost him the very livelihood about which be was questioned. Would it, then, be safe or politic to trust a special and, peihaps, prejudiced class like the Police with this new and ob- noxious power over the rigbta of the subject ? Why should even a reclaimed convict, striving, aud perhaps successfully, to do his best, be thus placed -at the mercy of a constable? We believe we have thus lairiy and completely stated the objections to the proposal, and now, without pretending to think them entirely ground- less let us see to what they really amount. The policeman, be it observed, as the agent in such cases, would he acting at his own proper peril, and, moreover, the limits of his action are narrowly defiuod. The question h;s been constantly argued as it it rested with the Police to send a man to prison at their caprice or discretion whereas a constable could do more than enable a magistrate to decide upon the case. It is the magistrate, not the policeman, who must determine whether the alleged means of living are or are not sufficient, and whether the presumption of criminal pursuits is or is not sustained. Nor is this all that a magistrate might determine, for he could judge the ac- cuser as well as the accused, the constable himself as well as the convict. If the latter has been summoned without reasonable cause, if the suspicion alleged cannot be fairly justified, the policeman mB?t answer for his fault; nor is it probable that any constable found to be acting either heedlessly or maliciously would long retain his place. There remains the objection founded on diffi- culty of proof. It might happen, we are told, that though all parties were acting in good faith, an incrimi- nated person would be unable to satisfy the magistrate as to the honesty of his pursuits. Oil this we can only say that the risk of injustice must be exceedingly small. The satisfaction required would be only this-that. the man was not living by the profession uf Crime. New, as every man must live somehow or other, it is probable that a man living honestly would be able to give such an account of himself as would relieve him from the suspicion of living dishonestly ? As to the opposite objection—that an honest and sufficient livelihood might be put in peril by the interrogation—we reply that in such a case the interrogation could not possibly be justified. A man clearly subsisting in this fashion could not be suspected of subsisting in another, and a policeman could only summon him at his peril. Doubt- less cases are still more conceivable in which injustice mav be done but, with this admission, we ask in con- clusion whether a risk so slight would not be outweighed by the claims of society to better protection agamst avowed and organized enemies—Tunis.

THE 31 EAT SUPPLY. j THE MEAT srpPLY. Our meat-supply is just now occupying, we think, an undue share of att ention-at least in the direction from which the arguments c,)me -because the agitation and discussion is principally got up by large stockholders in Australia and the River Plate States, who are anxious to find a market for their redundant and unsaleable sheep and cattle. No one can object to this laudable cheep and cattle. I desire, if it be but carried into practice judiciously and satisfactorily but, as far as we have yet seen, the efforts to lay down animal food in this country from long distances that can compete with good home-grown beef and mutton, are not successful, whether in the dried or preserved state.. Large consumers of meat, as our hand and brain- workers are in Great Britain, the last statistics taken tell us that we are tolerably well provided, with nine millions of cattle and thirty-five millions of sheep (to say nothing of pigs and poultry) to draw upon, besides the available supplies of live-stock to be obtained from the continent, and the cured provisions and fish we import. On the average of years we import one million head of animals, of which one-fourth are cattle and the other three-fourths principally sheep. To this has to be added about one million cwt. of salted and cured beef and pork.. A few days since Mr P. L. Simmonds went some- what largely into the question of utilizing the animal food that is wasted abroad in one of those exhaustive papers on waste substances at the Society of Arts which have made him an authority on such matters -1 and on Monday last there was a well-served dinner of preserved Australian meats, supplied to two or three hundred invited guests, at the Cannon-street Hotel, at the expense of some of the Australian Meat Companies. No doubt thousands of tons of meat available for food in the distant pastoral regions are lost to us be- cause of the difficulties of preserving it. In South America at least two millions of beasts are annually slaughtered for the fat, skins, and bones, the flesh of which could .be supplied here at less than 2d per pound. But then in what shape does it now reach us ? Dry, sinewy, unsavoury, or so salt that it can- not be eaten. Of this recent public dinners have given evidence, insomuch that our dainty workpeople refuse it in disdain. At the Paris Exhibition in 1867, the animal pro- ducts shown by the Argentine Confederation were extract of meat on Leibig's process, joints of beef and mutton prepared by injection, dried and salted beef and tongues, beef and mutton salted and smoke- dried, and charqui or sun-dried beef. These are sold on the average in the market of Buenos Ayres at 40 francs the metrical quintal, for ship's use and for ex- port. A sale has commenced in England for this meat. At Paris, including the 15 centimes (lid) octroi it can be sold at 6d the kilogramme, or two pounds. The several modes of preparation are simple and efficacious enough if the meat is not kept in a damp locality. The meat, which is without bone, makes good ragout with potatoes and other vegetables, and might be found a useful aliment for the badly fed agricultural and work- ing-classes of Europe. A plan is on foot to bring home live cattle from the River Plate in screw vessels. Whether this will succeed profitably remains to be proved. Again, the Buenos Ayres Government offers within the next five months a prize of £1,600 to an inventor of the system of preserving fresh meat best adapted for working on a large scale. That the superabundance of Australia cannot contri- bute to the Market of Great Britain has frequently been a matter for regret. Mr Philpott stated lately before the Food Committee of the Society of Arts, that he was in the habit of melting down from 1,000 to 1,500 sheep daily for four months together and that in the vast districts of rich pasture-land from Victoria to Brisbane (or one end of the great island continent to the other) there was an unlimited supply of the very finest, meat -all of which was at present wasted, because of the difficulty of disposing of the flesh and, therefore, the carcasses were melted down for fat. A bullock in Australia he said costs only from X3 to £ 4, and legs of mutton of the very best quality were, when salted, sold for 3s the dozen. If some simple and practical means could be devised for preserving such meat, it might be supplied to our markets at less than 3d per pound But unfortunately this has not yet been dis- covered. and the parboiled tinned-meat served up at the Australian banquet on Monday does not meet the requirements either as to nourishment or price. It is insipid and tasteless, and it cannot be sold under 6d or 7d a pound. In Victoria., South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland meat-preserving racames have rapidly been established for making meat ex- tracts and potted meas. The preserving process, however, admits of greater rapidity in the preserva- tion of the meat, and there is still much room tor improvement. Mr Simmonds in his paper says: Horned sock have increased of late in Australia in a more rapid rtuiO than the population, and the consequence is that the supply of beef being greater than the demand, a market has to be found for the surplus in other parts ot the world. The price of cattle is already communly quoted "at boiling rate," in other words, fat cattle will fetch no more from the butchers than can be realised from their hides, horns, hoofs, tallow, &c., for exportation. Under the old and slovenly system of sending cattle to the melting-pot, it is certain that from one-fourth to one-half 01 what ought to have been profitably turned to account was wasted The value of cattle and sheep must in future be measured in the colonies not by the local demand for butchers' meat, but by the price which can be obtained for the various constituents of the carcase in the markets of tne world. e z?io of this waste has received a large share of at- ren?n in the past two ye.rs from van.us Ausra jan compare* established to prepare animal food in dijfferent S whether as extractof meat, tinned provisions, or Iried aud smoked ml'a\ Etir,,)pe besides Great There are other countr y of E'-pebe? Great Bri?-in that would be ready to r.I?ve Austiaho. of its surplus meat. The Fr,Dch, although they aie not generally supposed to^ ^c^a^ ^P They a^re, consume m.c.?hanca? lit) supplJel. The) are, moreover, Ju ly -w.a;o uf ¡he value of such a diet mor.o.er. ?uhy .? ?.; ??? not only for hom- coiemntion but for the ? ,?f Provi??g th. ei•r armv or n?y should cnLcr be required on .or?gn «ervfc- The French Government have, it i_ s said, .I s of this tiriied meat in ordered some !O,COO pounds of this tinned meat in M°rn "??re noW in Au.traH. some four millions of cattle and forty millions of ..e.p, wbile there are m** million consumers, and the live stock, with abuL?d?nt pasi urag(,, it command, increase enormously. Untifreeentiy the only process employed for prcserv-j in- meat was the rude method of salting; but (no deterioration was so obvious, and the distaste of it 80 general, that it was only practised to a limited extent and for occasions when fresh meat could not be obtained The salt-junk of the navy in olden time was a gooa example of the wretchedly unwholesome and indiges- tible meat prepared, for it could hardly be called pre- served, by this process. We are therefore surprised to find in these days a naval officer advocating a return to it In the discussion ofi Mr Simmonds' paper at the Soeiety of Arts. Capt. Selwyd, as his opimcS. that the simplest and best proe? of preserving meat w?s tbfl bJ which eflmen bad been fed for many ^ears—salting. The only difficulty was, that in warm  bc S<ltisfactorily conduct ed but this was obvia,ed hv tb use of saccharine ma,tcrinste?id of salt, p:nticnlarlyjn COUItries where sugar i3 a Datural product. In tbis way be believed the ?? o??ei?rted in a perfect condinon Ïor tb use of English labour?.ifonlyacer?n  f p?dice ? their part couid he overcome. W rnjudice on the part of the ?nghah mechL?n? ?a?. • hoi'f^T Cant, Selwvn ought to know, ?D0t.o easu?. overcome. Tbey 'prefer, and wisely, fràh meat to aa* mit and homefed butchers' meat before cooked Aus- Lraii,n '? Inven^onbas not been prC^of n,;w processor pre,erving meat; for out of about one hundrcd or more processes patented during ? pi-(,Seu* twenty- six are for the preervatio¡¡ cf food bj dryn.J <t?h?tYy- one by excluding atmospb?c air, nine by cl>erin¡! it with an impervious substance, as fat, ?elatine parart n or collodion; and seven by i?et? meat with various a¡t8. Lately the subject ot preserving meat by cold has been revived. A resident in Sydney, is sai d to bkve in- vented a pr, cess for freezing meat, by which 300 tons njicht be despatched at, once. If the statements ad- vanced be true, that the cost of freezing and fright will amount to more than a penny a pound, tue pr:ce of beef and mutton in Sydney may be expected to rise in course of time, until it is little more than a penny a pound under that in England. We admit that we are yet sceptical as to the succe. of those efforts and speculations to throw j ncreased su p- piies of meat, on the European markets; but, no doubt, something more practical and really useful must be ae- complished by importers and preservers. Mai » < < Express.

.ØI. RAILWAY DIVIDENDS.—The dividend of the London and North Western for the half-year is 61 per cent. per ai.num with a balance of £2G,00.5, The dividends of the Midland are £ 2.17s bd upon each XIOO consolidated stock S2 3s 9d upon each £ 100 consolidated Birming- ham and Derby stock £ 3 upon each £ 100 consolidated preferential stock and at the full rates on all the other preferential stocks of the company; leaving a balance of £11,536 to be carried to the current half-year. The dividends recommended as above are i per cent. per annum more than those dccJared for the corresponding period of 1807, and i per cent. per annum more than for the first half of 1868. The company bud now to pay dividend and interest to the amount of £ 50,000 more than in the former period, and 33,000 more than in the latter. A conference of the representatives of a large num- ber of the poor-law unions iu the counties of Stafford, Warwick, Chester, and Salop has been held at Stafford, under the presidency of the Earl of Lichfield. The chairman said that the large increase of vagrancy in the miland counties called urgently for some repressive measures. In January, lotii, the number of vagrants relieved in 46 unions was 8,419; in January, 1868, it was J1,000; whilst last month the number was 14,430. Several suggestions were made, and the operation of Mr Buker's ticket system was explained and criticised. Mr Baker himself said that his system bad not reduced the number of vagrants who went into workhouses, but be had reduced the number of tramps in a remarkable degree. Some resolutions were passed, in which the necessity of adopting a uniform system, was strongly insisted upon. COUNTY FINANCIAL BOARDS.—At a meeting of the Cirencester Chamber of Agriculture, the Rev T. Maurice read a paper on County Financial Boards. He defined a county financial board as a body elected by the rate- payers to raise and disburse the funds applicable for the public expenses of the county. Taxation and repre- sentation have to be considered in dealing with this question, so that they who supply the money should have a voice in the control of it. It is difficult to decide whether or not it is desirable to apply this prin- ciple to county finance The principle of representa- tion has advantages of its own, and experience has falsified the predictions of those who considered that it would produce an inferior Parliament. If it were only desirable to have the most talented men in the House of Commons the Queen in Council might select them, but that would not constitute a repesentative assembly. Probably more able men might be nominated for a public board than could be selected by popular suffrage; but then the principle of representation would be sacrificed. The compensating advantages of an elected board would be many, and the elevating effect on the constituency itself would be considerable. Lord Oranmore has published a letter in the Irish papers on the precedence accorded to the Cardinal Cullen at the Lord Mayor's banquet in Dublin. The Cardinal, his lordship argues, being a British subject can have no rank, save what is sanctioned by the Sovereign. "Were the French Emperor to create a British subject a prince, on public occasions he certainiy would not be given predence above any peer; in no country in Europe, Roman Catholic or Protestant, would a subject holding foreign rank without the sanc- tion of the sovereign take precedence in public from that rank." If it is said that the pope has a power, "independent of the Queen," of confering rights and dignities in these islands, it is against this, says Lord Oranmore, that all Liberals of every creed fight and have fought for centuries." Many will say that it signifies little who walks into dinner first, and to this he (Lord Oranmore) agrees, but "the public recognition of the status of the Roman Catholic Church, as above the State, is no slight matter." Mr Gladstone received a body of farmers on Friday, who waited upon him in great force, to present the re- solutions which the Chambers of Agriculture have re- cently adopted in favour of a national poor rate, com- bined with local administration. Mr C. S. Read, M.P., introduced the deputation, and he and other gentlemen told the Prime Minister that what the agriculturists think is, that the incidence of the poor rate should be equal all over the country. That is their great point, and they are also of opinion, but do not urge it so strong- ly, that the income tax assessment should be the basis of the rating. One gentleman said his own individual opinion was that all incomes of £50 a year should be rated to the relief of the poor. The immediate prac- tical step which is proposed is the appointment of a Royal commission of enquiry. Mr Gladstoue took great pains to get at what the farmers really want, by putting a number of questions, and several times asking if he had rightly caught the meaning of the speakers. He enlarged upon the enormous difficulties involved in touching local taxation. The subject, however, was of great importance he had received the deputation with great pleasure, and what they bad said should have his most careful consideration. The Gazette contains the announcement that her Majesty has been graciously pleased to permit gentle- men attending the Court to wear either of the following dresses, instead of the present Court dress :—tor levees -Dark-coloured cloth dress coat, single-breasted, with straight collar, gold embroidered collar, eutts, and pocket flaps, gilt buttons; white waiscoat without collar d.rk-coloured cloth trousers of the same cour .s the coat, narrow gold lace stripe on the sidefi black cocked hat, with gold lace loop aid button sword similar to that worn with t,he civil uniform i ™™v*' cloth. Or, black silk velvet dress co?tc ? ??e?s?e sb?c as described above, wiih gilt, steel,  buttons; white waiscoat, or black silk velvet, "uhout collar, with simlar btittons but, of smaller size black silk velvet trousers: black cocked hat, with gilt of, "1 steel loop and button gut or~ < silk shoulder belt white neckcloth. For drawing rooms.—Coat, waiscoat, bat, sword, the same as for levees cloth breeches, of the same colour as the coat, or black black or white silk hose, shoes gilt buckles. Or, coat, waiscoat, hat, sword, the same as for leveea black silk velvet breaches, b'.i fdk gilt or steel buckles. In mourning.—A crapc to be worn on the left arm. It is to be understood that these dresses will be worn at Court by those gentlemen only who have no naval, military, or civil uniform. The present Court dress" will still be recognized at Her Majesty a Court. Gentlemen who w-uL informiOtion are to send their tailors to the Lord Chamberlain s o&ce The Rev Lleweilvn Davies has, caused a curious and instructive correspondence in the Guardian, by asking for information as to what is meant by the real and objective" presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Is there no "real and objective presence of Christ," he asks, without the Eucharist, i e., in any place at any time that may be assigned, or in every place at every time? He suspects that real,' objective,' 'substantial,' are words intended to disguise corporeal,' and so it proves for a Mr W. Walsham now writes to the Guardian to express his surprise at the correspondence, and to say that the real presence' means not the real presence of Christ" but the real presence of Christ's body and and blood," basing it of course on the words "This is my body." &c. Half the clergymen who write about it seem to think that in order to give any real meaning to the Sacra- ment they must prove that something more is there than He who is life itself, and never to have dreamt that, any effective mode of explaining what is always there, and always infinite,—the only true meaning, we suppose, of a Sacrament,—it is a great deal better than a finite addition to the infinite, even it that were possible. THE MANUFACTUUE OF WATCHES AND CLOCKS.—A most interesting and instructive little work, describing b.ifSy.but?i!hg"?t clear nus. the r!.e and progre?g of watch and clock making, has j?st r;een published by Mr 1* W. BENSON, of 25, O!d B??nd S?.et. 99, Wcstbourne Grove, and :be City team F'Jcto,y, 58 .nd 60, Ludgate Iiiii. The ?nk. hid1 is profos lv illu'trated, f: £ 8 a fu the various k!? o' ,.d c .,ith t h e,* r prices, ? ?? ?- should make a PU(('h:He wi:bout YJlltlng tbe .bo? ?tab?hr,.cn.s cr cccsul,t.n*- ,b£ i,< « »r-'lv valuable -ork. By its aid l,erst)i.s r,?t?itl.nz i ) bny p.rl of the United King- By its «id persons resid.n^ n> ?, select for them- dom, In?a.orth.Cuic.n.8. ? to and haTe it s.i?s the watcb bcs?uap-?_t"- thelr USE, and haYe It sen,? i u thi?ni t t 'a .NJ, Benson, who holds the appointment to tLo pri,:ce of Wale, sends thi. ??"?t?'sr?h r?n? of twoI)ostage Ftamps. an?d we cannolt o strc)r.,gly recommend it to the notice of the intcndiDg purchaser. 16

defend the old coinage on such a ground as this-tha.t much wiser and more disinterested persons than our pre- Bent Government or our present Prime MIDister must have invented centuries ago. He would cotnd, pro- bably, that Mr Gladstone is wiser and more dIsmtested than any of the old coining kings. But he would say, Why disturb our minds on the subjec ■ thing the penny the shilling, the pound are oM fue?nds which suit us well if the foreigner does not understand them, let him learn to do so, or else let them alone we don't want to be disturbed for the convenience of foreigner; show us at least that the great effort requi- site for a change is worth making for our own sakes, be- fore you ask ua to pull up our most firmly rooted asso- ciations. And this Mr Bagehot does very satisfactorily,—so far at least, as all tradesmen who either import foreign articles, or buy them when imported, or export home- produce, are concerned. Manufacturers who buy raw cotton from America, tradesmen who buy manufactured cottons from France, corn merchants who buy wheat from Russia or America, wine merchants who buy French, or Hungarian, or Spanish, or Italian, or Greek wines, provision merchants who buy eggs or butter from Belgium, watchmakers who buy Swiss watches from Geneva or Neuchatel, toy merchants who buy toys from Nuremberg, seed merchants who buy roots from Hol- land, booksellers who buy Prussian, or French, or Sbpanish, or Italian books; and again, cloth and worsted manufacturers who send their cloths and woollens to France, or Austria, cutlers who send their knives, and razors, and scissors all over the world,—these and a host of others all do feel, and feel very keenly, the great in- convenience of having to make elaborate calculations in thirty or forty different monetary systems, and to trans- late each separately into the English system with which alone they are practically familiar, be- fore they can realise distinctly the unit of profit which the buying or selling of each article at a given price will realise for them. And here is the strength of Mr Bagehot's position. He points out that the principal arguments addressed to the recent Commission on Decimal and International Coinage had a very prevalent tendency to overlook the most important of all points,—that the assimilation of moneys of account is the one thing needful for saving all this trouble, not ths mere assimilation of some one inportant coin. For instance, suppose that by charging a seignorage on the coining of the English pound as an equivalent, the quality of the gold in the pound could be so far reduced as to be exactly, what it now Very nearly is, namely, the equivalent of 25 French francs, and this without altering its circulating value in England, (which must depend not only on the gold in it, but on the charge for coining it into a legal ten- der if any charge for coining were imposed, as is not the case at present),—suppose this, and what we should have would only be a. single point of contact between the English and the French and the Italian currencies,—not in any sense a common money of account. If, at the same time, a French gold coin of the exact value of 25 francs were coined, those coins would exchange against each other and be used also as money of account but the English exporter anxious to know at what price an article which it costs hare Fel. to make, must sell for in France in order to make profit, and the French exporter who wants to know at what price a French article which it costs him 2 francs 15 centimes to make, must sell for in England in order to bring him a profit, would be no better off,-or at least very little better off, for we think Mr Bagehot puts his case too strongly,—than before. We say very little bettter off, for it would be possible, if there were a common point of contact between the two currencies, to make some attempt to calculate in that common coin for instance, the Englishman might say to himself that 7 d per article means 32 such artieles for a pound, and if, therefore, he could get a French coin of equal value for a fewer number of the same articles, he could export. And so the Frenchman might say that 2 francs 15 centimes an article means rather more than 1l! for a 25-franc piece and if, therefore, he could sell eleven or fewer in England for an English pound he would be able to export. This is somewhat easier calcu- lation,—because a calculation made by each solely in his own money,—that any requiring an actual reduction of the English into Foreign coinage, or the foreign coinage into English. Mr Bagehot is, we think, going a little too far when he speaks of the gain to commerce as quite inappreciable in having one of contact, one common coin (which might also, be money of account), unless the moneys of account were wholly assimilated. Still, make the most we can of the benefit of one point of contact between the English coinage or money of account, and that of other nations, and it is by no means a great step in advance. Still an elaborate calculation would be necessary before any tradesman could translate his unit of price into the foreign country's unit of price and without this nothing really important for inter- national purposes is gained. Moreover, the gaining of a good gold unit common to the Continental nations and ourselves would be of little avail unless that unit were decimally subdivided both abroad and at home. Now, the supposed gold unit, equal to 25 French francs, would not be decimally subdivided either abroad or at home. In France the tenth part of the new coin would be 2& francs or 250 centimes of which the tenth again Would be 25 centimes, and the next decimal subdivision 2l centimes so that both the centime and the francs Would practically disappear as money of account alto- gether, if the advantages of decimal notation were to be gained and if the franc and the centime were restrained, the enormous advantage of decimal notation Would be lost. Again, though in England the florin would then be really useable as decimal money of account, yet the florin would be of no use without Silver and copper coins that were decimal subdivisions of the florin. But the tenth part of the florin would be two pence and two-fifths of a penny (less that is, than twopence-halfpenny by the tenth part of a penny), so that the penny,—the popular coin of small transactions —would be utterly useless; and again, the next decimal subdivision would be less than the farthing by 4 per cent, so that the farthing likewise, more valuable in ttost retail transactions than the penny itself, would be driven out of use. We should, then, gain no common money of account with other nations by the universal adoption of a 25-franc piece equal to one pound sterling, Unless both France and England, and all other foreign nations as far as we know, completely withdrew their similiar coins, in place of which we at least should hav to substitute coins entirely incommensurable with them in value, so that during the interval of transition our poor people would be driven to madness. And though we do not quite agree with Mr Bagehot that there would be no good in getting a single point of contact between the varions coins and moneys of the world,- we do agree with him that it would not even be a step towards the great object,—a common money of account. Seeing, therefore, the almost insurperahle difficulty of the greater object, Mr Bagehot proposes a change Which would be comparatively easy and of very great value in itself, as it would -both lead to a decimal English coinage, and a common money of account bet- ween England and America and all the great Anglo- Saxon colonies, whose enormous spreading power promises to give them, not many centuries hence, the heritage of the civilized world. This proposal is to coin a new gold coin equivalent to j61 Os lOd, what we should propose to call the new guinea,' as it would differ from the old guinea only by 2d. This new guinea would be almost exactly equal to the American half-eagle, or five-dollar piece. It might be marked both as an English new guinea and as an American coinage (supposing the return made to cash payments), just 500 cents, so that a five-cent piece, equal to our 2Jd, would be the hundreth of the unit, and a half cent, equal to precisely one farthing, would be the thousandth of the new unit. Thus, while our own scale would be exactly decimalized, the American scale would be very QQ!3ily decimalized, and we should have conciliated them by adupting our gold unit from them. Our own new scale would be this,—10 farthings make a doit (2id) 10 doits make a rupee (2s Id), and 10 rupees taake a new guinea (£1 Os lOd). And we should have the enormous advantage of a decimal scale without necessarily losing the use of any of our present coins, for as the farthing would be the lowest new coin, and all our present coins are easily expressible in farthings, there would be no difficulty at all in translating the new scale into the old, or the old into the new. The only great objection to tIS proposa, which Mr Bagehot does not advert to, is this that while it wou d be of infinite use easily popularized and would create a common decimal money of accoun for Englad, te United States and all the Anglo-Saxon co?loni•es,-it Would be a sotp away from international community With France and the other EuropoMi nations. At present, as regards large sums, the P°"n? easily translatable into francs, au^ fraii Divide the number of francs by 100 aiid mu1lt+i■ pP ly by 4, and you get the answer in pounds and multiply the number of pounds by loo, and divide by 4, and you get the answer in francs. But under the proposed system the new gold unit would be nearly 26 francs. The only Wav to approach the reduction, therefore, would be by tnultiplying by 26 (a rather awkward multiplier with onlv two factors, 2 and 13), to get the pounds into fra C8 and dividing by 26 to get the francs into pounds. Those therefore, who are thinking mainly of trade '\yith Europe when they talk of anb interntional and decimal coinage, would be greatly scandalized they wouM think the last state of our coinage worse than the first. ,h ld ?r?e whole, however, we should be glad to see Mr J3a ebot's proposal accepted (1) It would give us ea?S?'??d Without any terrible blow to the intellects o:hY' /ed com age for if we keep the f poo, kee all that would be necessary to make arthmg? we ..1 them- And we see no other hope ttIatters .mtelligIb e d comparable to this. (2) If a deClmal .sJsir: t° systems of a part of the t would nuuy h is every day gaming i?- %lIlmercial world, whlC t ? ?nturyor two hence it tortance on aii the re 1 Saxon commerce 'Will be ?ems likely t?at Saxori commerce will be ?ore importnt than th remaining commerce of tlie rest of the world, fa important than any Much could possibly be con icted under any other M?erest of Mthe wo? rl.-?S Though the pro- Po -'1hange, therefore, ail a step ? ?.S'?S?.??--?' seem a step towards a system which in the long run will be able to impose its own terms upon Europe. run are disposed to think that Mr Bagehot has made out a good case in favour of breaking down our British homage to the inviolate pound.